150 Word Review: 'The Holiday' (2006)

Love, early aughts-style

Photo: Sony

This isn’t lifestyle dramedy auteur Nancy Meyer’s best movie—it is a lesser work. But The Holiday is watchable, nonetheless, a time capsule of romantic attitudes circa 2006 with a stacked cast, including Kate Winslet, who is a little too good for this light trifle about a London singleton who swaps fabulous houses with a lonely L.A. career woman, two brokenhearted strangers in need of quick getaways.

Jack Black plays a nice guy, although his natural Jack Blackness is aggressively suppressed. Jude Law is a swaggering bad boy who is also, *spoiler*, a sensitive widowed single father. Swoon!

The Holiday is tee-hee funny, not ha-ha. The best part is Cameron Diaz, as the unexpectedly uncoupled West Coast workaholic who detoxes at a small cottage in the English countryside. Diaz is such a bubbly and intelligent comedic actor who wasn't fully appreciated when she was a star. Now, she’s happily retired.

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